UPCOMING EVENTS

We’re going to a section of a magical tower that holds a bunch of animals, dragons, and other strange creatures. What could go wrong?

The Menagerie wing is now open in One Night in Karazhan, the latest adventure for Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. It includes more bosses to kill, which earn you more new cards. Cards are good. We want the cards. That’s why we created this guide — to help you get those cards.

Note that these strategies only cover the normal versions of each fight. The Heroic battles are much harder and typically require custom-built decks.

The Curator

Passive hero power: Gallery protection (your hero has Taunt).

Taunt is usually an ability that minions have that forces you to attack them before you can reach other creatures on the board or the hero. The Curator himself has Taunt, meaning you can only attack him and not his minions.

You can still clear his board with spells, but you’ll want to spend most of your energy attacking his face. Play with an aggressive, fast deck that can quickly deal a lot of damage. You should be able to kill him before he can create a lethal board.

I was able to easily beat him with an aggressive Warrior deck, which won thanks to some charge minions and weapons.

Above: All the mana.

Image Credit: GamesBeat

Nightbane

Passive hero power: Manastorm (Players start with 10 mana crystals).

You both start with 10 mana crystals, so take advantage by making a deck filled with powerful, expensive minions and spells. Seriously, anything big and powerful you have, throw it in there. Make a deck with nothing of minions and spells that cost 8 or more mana. I liked playing Paladin just because that class has great Legendaries, like Tirion Fordring, but anything will do here.

Usually, when you mulligan, you’re trying to get low-cost cards that you can play in the early game. You don’t need to worry about that here. Mulligan for the strongest cards in your deck, no matter their cost.

I don’t usually like to call Hearthstone a pay-to-win game, but it certainly helps here if you’ve spent a lot of money and have amassed a good collection of Legendary minions — or have been playing for a long time and have acquired a lot of cards through free packs and gold.

Above: Let the sheep explode.

Image Credit: GamesBeat

Terestian Illhoof

Passive hero power: Dark pact (Only Icky Imps can damage Illhoof).

Illhoof begins with a 1/1 Icky Imp on his board. When it dies, it deals 2 damage to Illhoof and summons another Icky Imp. That’s the only way you can damage Illhoof, so you need to kill 15 Icky Imps.

Since the Imp only has 1 health, you’ll have an advantage if you play a Class that has 1 damage Hero power that can attack minions. Specifically, Mage, Rogue, or Druid. Illhoof can also quickly fill the board up with more Icky Imps and other demons, so you’ll want to include board clears like Swipe or Fan of Knives.

Anything that deals at least one damage to all enemy minions will help you quickly hit Illhoof if he has multiple Icky Imps on his board. In fact, try to hold off on using those abilities until he has a decent amount of Icky Imps. A Warrior deck with a lot of Whirlwind effects (like Ravaging Ghoul!) can also do well. Don’t forget to use minions that deal damage as part of their Battlecry, like Mad Bomber.